Charge letter

Charge to the Committee Against Sexual & Relationship Violence

Dear Colleagues,

Last year, Chancellor Wolf Yeigh asked Dr. Kari Lerum, then interim Chair of the Campus Diversity Council, to charge a new Committee Against Sexual and Relationship Violence (CASARV) at University of Washington Bothell. Dr. Lerum initiated cross-unit conversations around sexual assault and relationship violence in Autumn, 2016 that led to a year-long informal collaborative process.

These organizing efforts culminated in the Chancellor’s statement of commitment to address these issue at UW Bothell and creation of this committee (https://www.uwb.edu/chancellor-blog/may-2017/assault). In cooperation with Dr. Lerum and Chancellor Yeigh, I am carrying this charge forward as the 2017-2018 Chair of the Campus Diversity Council.

You have each been carefully selected for this committee due to your position as a stakeholder and/or expert in anti-sexual and relationship violence work.

The purpose of CASARV is to guide UW Bothell in building better – and more centrally coordinated – infrastructure for reducing and responding to sexual assault and relationship violence. CASARV will function as a subcommittee of the Campus Diversity Council; as such CASARV’s work and recommendations must be in close coordination with the Diversity Council and the Diversity Action Plan.

The work of this committee will also extend and enact some of the recommendations of the 2015 Safe Campus Working Group. Together, the chairs of CASARV and the Diversity Council will present recommendations to campus administration.

Your recommendations should include:

Best evidence-based practices for ongoing anti-sexual assault and relationship violence trainings/education for all members of the UWB community. This includes:

All students

All Student Employees

All Classified and Professional Staff

All Faculty members (Tenure Track, Lecturer Track; full time and part time)

Best evidence-based practices for monitoring and responding to incidents of sexual assault and relationship violence within the UWB community. This includes:

Resources for longer term counseling and emotional support for survivors.

To develop recommendations, the committee is expected to:

Complete sexual assault and relationship violence training to be facilitated by local sexual assault and relationship violence agencies.

Conduct an environmental scan of UW Bothell practices relating to sexual and relationship violence prevention and response. This should include both what we currently do and any information regarding the effectiveness of our practices. Members of the committee will serve as liaisons for executing the environmental scan across campus.

Review current literature on sexual and relationship violence prevention and response. Given that this is an emerging area of research, the Committee should also consult leading organizations who are working with campuses to develop best practices such as Campus Advocates and Prevention Professionals Association (CAPPA) and the California Coalition Against Sexual Assault (CALCASA; a leading organization on campus violence working with Office of Violence Against Women and the Centers for Disease Control).

Assess campus needs with a representative sample of stakeholders across students, faculty, and staff.

Timeline

The chairs of this committee will determine meeting dates, with Quarterly updates/recommendations to the Campus Diversity Council. The committee will develop a work plan in response to this charge, which should include process and deadlines for the environmental scan, literature review, and campus needs assessment. By May 31, 2018 please provide a report summarizing the work accomplished and next steps forward for the coming year.